Winkeltje: The Little Shop News

Greetings shopkeepers,

As Winkeltje is approaching its 1.0 launch, the price will be increased from $12.99 to $14.99 (or your regional equivalent). This price increase will happen on 4th of March, 2022. Make use of this opportunity to save yourself some money by getting a copy of Winkeltje for yourself or someone else before the price increase happens.

[h2]3 Years, 50 Updates[/h2]
Winkeltje has received 50 updates over the past 3 years since the game was released into Steam Early Access. That is close to 1,4 updates per month! A full list of updates since launching into Early Access can be found here: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/949290

[h2]Pricing History[/h2]
For full disclosure, Winkeltje has increased its price once before. On February 19th 2019 you could obtain a copy of Winkeltje for $9.99. 13 months and about 20 updates later, the price increased to $12.99. Now, roughly 2 years and some 30 updates later we are going to reflect the increase in value one last time by setting the launch price of Winkeltje at $14.99.

[h2]Launch Sneak Peek[/h2]
With the 1.0 launch of Winkeltje you are going to be receiving a lot of new content and a much requested new feature to help you run your shop. To prepare for this huge update we hope that you will join us in testing a preview of the 1.0 update on the unstable branch on Steam when we are ready to deploy it. We hope you will enjoy this little preview of what you can expect. ;)

Dear Shopkeepers,

We hope you like the new face of Winkeltje as this update marks the point where Winkeltje gets a new logo and icon for a fresh new in-game and online presence. This update once again appears light on the surface as work on the full release of Winkeltje is still very much progressing steadily. Some of the keen fans on Discord may have noticed some hints of what is to come. Unfortunately, we can't share this with you just yet until everything is ready and the time is right.



[h2]New[/h2]

• Art - Winkeltje now has a fresh new logo and icon!
  

[h2]Changes[/h2]

• Art - Updated the Winkeltje logo.
  
• Art - Updated the game icon.
  
• Art - Updated the cursor icons.
  
• Balance - Community - Reduced the appeal of the Table Candlestick, Wall Candlestick, Lantern Stand, and Wall Lantern.
  
• Balance - Community - Lowered the amount required to complete the Master tailor, Master smith, Master chef, and Master alchemist objectives from 70 to 65.
  
• Objectives - Community - 'The smith' objective will now activate when the shop opens after having completed 'Sickle smith'. This will require some effort to complete but it will enable specialized blacksmiths to obtain the coveted sword before it naturally unlocks at shop level 38.
  
• UI - Split up the New Game Menu to have difficulty & scenario separated.
  

[h2]Fixes[/h2]

• Items - Community - Not all displays had some default rotation applied causing the random item rotation option in the game settings to do nothing.
  
• Items - Community - Enabling the item rotation setting would exit the loop early if an item slot was empty.
  
• Lights - Community - Reduced the light radius of the Table Lantern by half a unit to reduce overlapping light artifacts from showing.
  
• UI - The specialization histories group in the specialization menu was not visible.
  
• UI - Community - Loading a shop would incorrectly clamp the shop level to 39 instead of 40.
  
• UI - Community - Unlocking new items will now update the counter items so they may be purchased in the same day.
  
• UI - The planter menu would show a 'Craft' prompt when using a PlayStation controller.
  
• UI - It's now possible to close confirmation windows that have a single button by pressing any of the return keys on the keyboard.
  

[h2]Hotfix[/h2]

• Achievements - Achievements would only unlock in creative mode, instead of the other way around.
  
• Code - Changed converter 6414 to 6415.
  
• Code - Old converter would be triggered at the wrong time, causing a critical error.
  
• Customers - Moved the un-reserving of an access point to a slightly earlier point in the code when searching for a random place to move to.
  
• Employees - Fixed typo in the employee pool causing an error.
  
• Objectives - The stockpiler objectives were not updated when crafting which could result in the objective overview showing incorrect values.
  
• UI - Fixed a string that wasn't being translated.
  
• UI - In the load menu, added a check to ensure a saved variable exists before trying to use it.
  
• UI - Customers and traders should no longer sometimes have a red ring over their head.
  
• UI - Unlocking more than one piece of furniture will now show the notification: "You Unlocked - New Furniture" which should speed up the notifications.
  
• UI - The very hard description in the difficulty select would not fit in the description box.
  
• Language - Updated the English and Dutch translations to have more informative descriptions in the scenario select menu.
  
• Scenarios - Scenario constructor wasn't called, causing the payment objective to be enabled in relaxed mode.
  
• Scenarios - Creative mode did not have free shop building.
  

Update: v6502
Hotfix: v6522

Dear Shopkeepers,

Winter is upon us, and so we prepare for the solstice in the last update of this year! We hope everyone is doing well and staying safe in these crazy times during a crazy global pandemic. Our country announced another lockdown that lasts at least until next year. It is very unfortunate to miss out on seeing people but we hope that together we can stay positive and let the joy of Winkeltje take our mind off things for a moment.

This is the last update of the year. But fret not, next year you can look forward to more updates as we are continuously pushing Winkeltje closer to a full release. There are exciting things in the works that we can't wait to show once they are ready.

In the meanwhile you can enjoy several new winter flavoured outfits that fit the season. You can obtain these by completing the annual winter objectives in the game. We hope you enjoy these as we settle in closer to the fire and say a little prayer for a snowy white holiday season.



[h2]New[/h2]

• Art - Added 12 new cosmetic unlocks linked to the winter objectives.
  

[h2]Changes[/h2]

• Art - Reverting change that relaxed the shoulders of the female skeleton it was causing several issues with other outfits.
  

Update: v6414

Dear Shopkeepers,

Rejoice for there is another update with new content and news moving forward. Over the last month we have been making good progress on the console development side of things for Winkeltje by steadily resolving issues that stand in the way of a release. For you, the player, progress on this front does not immediately translate to the game getting better or receiving content but it will mean the game will reach a larger audience when the game is finally released. Meanwhile, you would probably like to see some new things added to the game so we hope you will enjoy the following modest additions and fixes.


With the introduction of lights to the game we noticed that early game shops are quite dark and sombre. To brighten up the day of new shopkeepers you can now unlock a couple of new lights at shop level 5 and 10 which will bridge the gap to when you can unlock additional light options.


While this patch looks rather small on the surface, it contains a major changes in the background. This update contains a lot of maintenance that we had been putting off (generally known as Technical Debt) that needed to be addressed to improve stability and maintainability in the future.

In addition that that, we're working hard on the console ports. Unfortunately we ran into technical issues that came up which required significant changes in the codebase. Fortunately these changes are now finished and we are currently full steam ahead to get the ports done.

Finally, we are also working on new content! Most of it will not be out for a while, but rest assured it's something a lot of people have asked for for a long time.

[h2]New[/h2]

• Art - Added 4 new early game light options unlocked at shop level 5 and 10.
  

[h2]Changes[/h2]

• Language - Updated all translations.
  
• UI - Major GUI code and project file refactor across hundreds of files for better GUI code management moving forward.
  
• IO - Refactored all file IO to be asynchronous.
  

[h2]Fixes[/h2]

• UI - Added a null check for a potential error.
  
• UI - Added additional characters that are not allowed in the shop name.
  
• UI - Probable fix for trader and counter menus not populating with items.
  
• UI - Fixed an issue where the display menu would appear empty.
  
• UI - The commerce menu will now close the frame after accepting a transaction to prevent the interact action from interacting twice from the same button press.
  
• UI - Fixed a prompt highlighting issue where picking up furniture would highlight the restocking prompt.
  
• UI - Community - After a change to the watering progress bar you could no longer pick up a planter after watering.
  

[h2]Hotfixes[/h2]

• Trader - If a specialized trader would spawn when no items were available for that specialization it would throw an error instead of spawning a generic trader.
  

Update: v6406
Hotfix: v6407

Dear Shopkeepers,

Today's update is packed with updates, changes, and fixes so read on and let us know what you think.


The character models have gone through several iterations since they were created. With each iteration we found better ways to render and customize the player and customer models while staying lightweight in performance and improving the way we mange this customization data. With this iteration we can finally say goodbye to the old low poly villager model that has been one of the first characters to make it into the game and say hello to the updated models that now make use of the same technology that drives the shopkeeper models.


One of the first thing Winkeltje players find out when struggling with making profit is that shop specialization is can earn you more than being a general store. In today's update we are adding a buff that will increase the amount of customers that visit your shop depending on the number of specializations your shop is known for. We are very excited to hear what you think of this change.


Over the last year or so we have been gradually updating the game's interface to be more useful, stable, easier to maintain, look better, and function for mouse and controller players. Looking at the list of interfaces that needed updating this was a monumental task for our tiny team. One of the last things on the list for the new interface vision is the money overview. The change is minor but it comes paired with an option that allows you to see sales pops for that extra gratification.

[h2]New[/h2]

• Balance - Being a general store now adds 20% more customers per category, capped at 80% more.
  
• Options - Community - Added an accessibility feature to make camera transitions instantaneous to address reports of motion sickness.
  
• UI - Community - The commission menu now indicates if you have the required amount to complete the commission.
  
• UI - Updated the money overview in the bottom right corner.
  
• UI - Added an optional overhead transactions feature to see transactions as they happen.
  

[h2]Changes[/h2]

• Animation - Adjusted the feminine avatar definition in order to relax the shoulders a little.
  
• Art - Community - Updated Customers & Trader models.
  
• Balance - Changed Shopping Night customer modifier from x2.5 to x2.
  
• Balance - Capped the maximum amount of customers in the store to 100.
  
• Language - Community - Hybrid storage cupboards have been renamed to address confusion in the unlock notifications.
  
• Language - Community - Applied a couple of community suggested improvements for English and Dutch.
  
• Language - Community - Improved the exit game message.
  

[h2]Fixes[/h2]

• Achievements - Community - Large Shops would not correctly trigger the final achievement.
  
• Achievements - Community - Creative Large shops would still allow for achievements to be obtained when it shouldn't.
  
• Characters - Fixed a jitter when the customers would walk into the store for the first time.
  
• Scenarios - Creative Large shops would not use the correct pricing for creative shops.
  
• UI - Community - The commission menu should now select the first available category even when a different category was selected when closing the menu prior.
  
• UI - The translation ID's for the camera transition option were not correct.
  
• UI - Hidden objectives should now also hide from the objectives overview in addition to the objectives menu.
  
• UI - Initial item selection in the commerce menu should now pulsate the respective item in the inventory overview.
  
• UI - Selecting a crafting/planting input/output in the crafting and planting menu should now give you an item info tooltip.
  
• UI - The level progression animation is no longer affected by timescale.
  
• UI - The crafting skill point message should no longer appear in Creative modes.
  
• UI - Failing a commission without a commission board in the shop would result in an error.
  
• UI - Sorting and filtering the inventory menu would reset the category selection.
  
• UI - The inventory menu would not show displayed items without having at least one of that item in the inventory.
  
• UI - Attempting to filter displayed items by favorite could cause an error if a favorited item was not present in the shop.
  
• UI - Discovered duplicate translation IDs causing the winter and autumn events to use the furniture tag description instead of the event description.
  
• Customers - Fixed a jitter when customers would first walk into the shop.
  

[h2]Known Issues[/h2]

• Art Some character materials were renamed and will revert the shopkeeper to the default appearance when these materials attempt to load.
  

[h2]Hotfixes[/h2]

• v6374 - UI: Starting a new shop will now first fade to black for a smoother transition.
  
• v6375 - UI: Added some checks to code in the commerce menu to in an attempt to prevent an error when selecting an item.
  

Update: v6371
Hotfix: v6375